My most problematic compulsion is easing off

I have been able to eat chips, burgers and other greasy products with my fingers for many years, but at my worst I could not go near cooking oil at all and the worst scenario regarding my OCD now is if someone were to come into my home and cook a meal using cooking oil and then wash up after them because I can still feel contaminated when I cook with cooking oil myself and I have to make sure my kitchen is very clean after I have cooked like this and in my mind other people would not clean it as well. Nobody is likely to use my kitchen because I have lived alone for 23 years and I am not close enough to anyone for them to offer to cook in my home which for now I am pleased about, but for the first time in many, many years I felt much more at ease using cooking oil to cook myself a fry up this week and I was not as fussy with my washing up as I normally am at such times, and I felt so relaxed that I felt that I could cook using cooking oil on at least a weekly bases.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, meditation and sharing my thoughts, feelings anxieties and triumphs in groups with other OCD sufferers has helped a lot and accepting that I have a problem without fighting and resisting it has also helped to calm this problem down. The 12 step programme normally used to help alcoholics, drug addicts and compulsive gamblers also helped put me in a frame of mind for me to change my attitude towards this problem and calm myself down, now I have had a feel for recovery from this most severe compulsion I am going to capitalise on it and move forward.

OCD Action's Vision

OCD Action works for a society where OCD is better understood and diagnosed quickly, where appropriate treatment options are open and accessible, where support and information is readily available and where nobody feels ashamed to ask for help.

We are here because OCD tears families apart and leaves people isolated and exhausted. OCD ruins lives. It is a sad fact that many people with OCD delay seeking help. They put up with it for too long, perhaps thinking that nothing can be done or just not knowing where to turn. OCD Action believes in taking action. We want people affected by OCD to seek help, to understand their treatment options and find the support and motivation they need to fight back. OCD is treatable, it can get better.